Peter's Cruise Report - Regal Princess 4 Day Seacation

If you have followed my blog long enough you know that I sometimes get others to share their cruise report with me to put up on my blog.  And since I am not able to cruise I am so appreciative of Peter and Jacky for doing up a cruise report.  

This is a report on the Regal Princess 4-day Seacation Cruise from Southampton, England commencing 3^rd August 2021.

 First of all, let me say that we were so glad to be back on board a Princess ship after so long and we had a great time.

Setting up the cruise on the MeddallionClass app in advance was a challenge, which I won’t go into here, as there are so many forums that have covered the issues. We eventually did enough to show the Green Lane on our app. However, no-one looked at our phone screens or scanned the QR code that appeared. No one asked us what boarding time we were allocated, and no one checked if we were trying to arrive earlier than our allotted time. We were in group A, which was the earliest arrival window (11.45am to 12.15pm), but we arrived at around 11.30am. There were not many people there when we arrived compared to a usual embarkation day. Overall, I would estimate that the ship was no more than around half capacity.

We opted for offsite parking and were transferred to the terminal by minibus. Our driver dropped us off at the luggage area and told us to drop our cases and then cross the road to a marquee for our Covid test. We only had carry-on luggage, so we walked straight over to the marquee. We noticed long lines of cars as we crossed the road. This was for the drive through Covid testing for passengers who had opted to park at the port. We were glad we opted for offsite parking, as our testing was much, much quicker, with no queues.

At the marquee, we were met by a member of staff who wanted to see our proof of vaccine. Some people were opening the NHS app on their phone to show this, but I thought it would be quicker to download the proof to my phone and print it out. I handed the printed vaccination proofs to the staff member with our passports. After checking our names, we were allowed to enter the marquee, it took less than a minute.

We were directed to one of several desks and handed over our passports. We were asked to confirm some details including our mobile numbers and a wrist band was attached to us. We were then directed to another staff member who carried out our Covid Test. It consisted of a gentle swab around each nostril a few times. There was no throat swab taken. We were directed to socially distanced seats in the marquee and told we would get a text when our results were ready. Immediately, we received texts from Princess to say our details had been registered, this was at 11.39am. We waited until we got a second text at 12.01pm to say the test result was negative and we could proceed with the embarkation process. The whole thing was quick and painless. The only discomfort was that is was a hot day and the marquee had no air conditioning other than the open doors.

We were directed to cross the road back to the cruise terminal and entered the building. A staff member asked to see our all-clear text from Princess. We were then directed to one of several staff members who took our passports and asked us if there was any change to our health declaration that we had made through the app. She gave us a ticket indicating that we could proceed through the Green Lane.

There were options for Green, Blue or Yellow Lanes and staff members directed us accordingly. We were immediately shown to a free staff member behind a desk, who took our Green ticket and gave us our medallions. We were then told we could go to the ship and we headed for security. There were no queues and staff members just looked at our medallions. I told a security person that we had 2 bottles of wine in our luggage, but they were not concerned and there was no Princess desk to pay corkage for bottles over the one per person limit. We then got on the ship and our medallions were scanned in. The whole boarding process was very quick, but this might change when ships are full again.

All staff in the terminal and on the ship were welcoming and happy to see cruisers again. All staff members wore masks all the time. Cruisers were required to wear masks inside the ship while moving around, but these could be removed once you were seated in most venues. Masks had to be worn all the time in the Princess Theatre and in Princess Live. The precautions made us feel safe, but for someone with hearing difficulties, I struggled to hear many staff members. My wife came to the rescue by acting as my interpreter.

There was an information sheet in the stateroom to help you connect to MedallionNet WiFi. This was useful, as we could not work out how to connect without it. We opted for the 50% discount for internet for all 4 days ($5 per day instead of $10). You can buy it on a daily basis as well. We are disappointed that the free internet minutes we got before have been replaced with this discount, as it will be much more expensive for us on longer cruises. Being connected all the time means that we spent more time on our phones than previously. In the past we would ration our usage to eke out our free minutes. There was also a 1-page Princess Patter in the stateroom printed both sides. This arrived each night. We met our steward and opted to refuse the nightly turndown service, so she only serviced our room once a day. Staff were not allowed to enter the stateroom while we were inside, apart from the waiter who brought our breakfast, who placed it on our table as usual.

There is a useful option on the app, which is Crew Chat. Instead of going to guest services or phoning, you can send a message. Our medallions were blue instead of black for Elite. As we want to keep them on our fridge as mementos, I asked on the chat if they could be changed. I received a message back saying this can be done at guest services and to pop down. This was done quickly, and we had our black medallions. We then went to the Concerto Dining Room for lunch and really started to relax.

We ordered complimentary Princess Robes via the OceanNow section of the app and they were in our stateroom when we got back from lunch. I had to ask the steward to change them twice though, as they were too small for me. This has never happened before and I have not put on that much weight recently. I eventually got one that was a fit for me. The ordering section of the app is quite easy to use and it clearly shows which things are chargeable and which things are complimentary. Room service is still free, but additional items are available at a charge (e.g. food from Crown Grill). There is still a $3 charge for Pizza delivered to the stateroom.

We ordered specialty coffee while sitting by the sea walk and then again while in our stateroom. This took over 20 minutes to arrive to the sea walk and over 40 minutes to our stateroom. Both times the coffee was awful. The first time a supervisor spotted we were waiting near the sea walk and got a waiter to go and get us our coffee personally. He obviously knew something wasn’t working well but did not tell us what. The coffee the waiter brought back was great, but the order that arrived late through the app was undrinkable. When the same awful coffee arrived at our stateroom after 40 minutes, I took it down to the International Café and showed it to a supervisor. She said that coffee through the app comes from room service and not from the International Café. She replaced the coffee with a good one and said she would report it to room service. We got a call from the room service manager, and he subsequently visited us in person. He was very sorry and explained that all app orders are fulfilled by room service, who use automatic coffee machines in the dining rooms, not the fresh bean coffee machines in the International Café. This means that they cannot replicate the same quality. For that, you need to order direct from the International Café. He said that he would put a note on our account so that anytime we ordered, the room service staff would go to the International Café and get us the fresh bean coffee rather than the automatic machine coffee. He also sent chocolate covered strawberries to our stateroom with a half-bottle of champagne as an apology. That is what we love about Princess, he spotted that we had been disappointed and went the extra mile to make it right. Rest assured we gave him a commendation on our post cruise survey.

After a lot of fuss, we managed to set up our dining before the cruise using the new Dine My Way section of the app. A table for 2 each night at 6.40pm in the Allegro Dining Room (apart from 1 night at the Crown Grill). We had no problem getting seated, but it did not appear that the dining room had these reservations. Each night we arrived and were asked which stateroom we were in and whether we had a reservation. When replying positively to this, they then looked on the restaurant plan and found us a spare table. This was fine with the ship half empty, but I hope it works as well when ships are full.

Menus are on one sheet of paper and there is no salt or pepper. This is applied by the waiters on request. It is the same for bread and butter, as none is left on the table. We took our own bottle of wine to the dining room. We asked about paying corkage at the end of the meal, but they said no, this was not necessary. This might be because they will no longer store unfinished bottles of wine in the dining room. We had to take it back to our stateroom and bring it again the following night to finish it off. The food was as good as we remember and the service was great, although with less chatting with waiters. The option to select your ideal pace of dining in the app does not seem to have an effect. We had put fast, but all our meals were served at a leisurely pace. We decided not to see any shows on this cruise, as sitting in a mask for an hour was not something we wanted to do, so that was not an issue for us. The pace of dining idea sounds like a nice option, but I can’t see how they are going to make it work.

Our meal at the Crown Grill was very good. The service to start with was outstanding, with a very attentive and funny waiter. However, as the night went on, the restaurant got very busy and we saw less and less of our waiter. Again, we were in no rush, so it did not cause us an issue. The biggest disappointment of the night was hearing that they no longer serve Chocolate Fudge Obsession for dessert. It is our all-time favourite dessert and none of the replacements are anywhere near as good. Hopefully they will bring it back if more people ask for it.

The cruise was advertised as a UK coastal cruise. However, apart from departing Southampton, we saw nothing of the coast as the ship sailed out into the middle of the English Channel and towards the Bay of Biscay. This may have been due to the weather, and we had sun for around 3 of the 4 days. We had no complaints, as we love the sight and sound of the sea without any land in view.

Disembarkation was quick and easy. The disembarkation group option on the app did not work at all and so it was done the old-fashioned way with a disembarkation sheet and colour coded tags delivered to your room. As we only had carry-on luggage, I confirmed via crew chat that we could have breakfast in the dining room and then just walk off whenever we wanted. We did that at around 9am with no queues whatsoever.

Overall, it was great to be back, and we had a great time. The medallion disappointed us a little, as we expected that staff wherever we went would know who we were and what stateroom we were in. Most of the time, the scanners they had did not pick up the medallion quickly and we had to give our stateroom number. The app has far too much in it. It is slow to launch and is not very easy to use. If they simplified it and slimmed it down so that it launched and worked more quickly, I think it would be a lot better.

We found ordering food and drinks easier to do on the app than on the stateroom TV. However, I think it would be better to be able to view your stateroom account on the tv rather than just on the app. You can no longer view your account on the TV and the app became glitchy for a couple of days meaning you could not see your account. The only way to keep a check was to ask for a printout at guest services.

We are looking forward to our next cruise later this year and it will be interesting to see how things work with a full capacity and a crew with more experience of the new way of cruising.